Why Shanghai is an excellent film?

I won’t say that its Dibaker Bannerjee’s best work cause he created his masterpiece when he made Khosla Ka Ghosla; a film which according to me is a complete film making school in itself. But I would definitely say that Shanghai is superior than any other so called brilliant movies made this year. If you follow my blog you’ll know which film I am talking about here.

Shanghai is brilliant because it is not pretentious, doesn’t exaggerate and does not try to entertain people. Its predictable and still has a shock value but this shock doesn’t come with a bang…its subtle. It has a slow pace but there’s something new happening in every scene. Dibaker doesn’t take forever to establish a character or a situation which results into a tight script. The dots are not connected for the audience. If you still don’t understand what happened in the end you seriously are living in a bubble.

Performances are worth all the applauds and kudos to Dibaker for introducing us Hindi speaking janta to an actor like Prosenjit. Abhay Deol deserves multiple awards for playing a South Indian (Tam-Brahm to be precise) with such subtlety never seen before in Hindi cinema. Thank you Mr. Bannerjee for not playing on the stereotypes set by the industry. And, not to forget thanks for digging out an actor from a guy who has been used and abused as a ‘serial kisser’ repeatedly. Although helped by a lot of props and makeup yet Emraan Hashmi did well to show the world that he ought to be taken seriously.

Shanghai is a good lesson for Prakash Jha on how to make a realistic film on politics and for Sujoy Ghosh on how to leave certain things unsaid.